2012 reelection rate: 90 percent

12/13/12 12:12 PM EST

Bloomberg reports that 9 in 10 members of the U.S. House and Senate who sought new terms this year were successful.

The BGOV Barometer shows that 90 percent of House members and 91 percent of senators who sought re-election in 2012 were successful, exceeding the incumbent re-election rates of 2010, when 85 percent of House members and 84 percent of senators seeking re-election were successful. For senators, this year’s re-election percentage was the highest since 2004.

Those figures are roughly in line with trends over the past four decades: 90 percent or more of House members have typically been reelected over that period. (The 85 percent House reelection rate in the wave election of 2010 was something of an aberration — it was lowest since 1970, another 85 percent reelection year.) The Senate reelection rate tends to be lower than the House, so it’s unusual that the Senate rate would be a tick higher this year.

Either way, the 2012 reelection rates serve as an example of an enduring phenomenon: Voters hate Congress but like their own member.